OTD ran into one of our older fishwrap colleagues at P!@TD -- clearly the old chap had been sent on assignment to figure out, on behalf of his daily tabloid, what all the fuss was about. From his expression, he was unmoved.

Tickets to this thing go on sale this Thursday. Watch this space for pre-sale links.

Now let's talk about the Best Music Poll ballot for a second. For reasons that are lost to history, the one category where OTD really holds an sway in the nominations are in the metal categories. And so first of all, we'd like to apologize to Doomriders, who made the local metal album of the year (perhaps the national metal album of the year), and did not get nominated for a damn thing in this year's BMP.

Well, he did for a night anyway. Rick Barton was the Dropkicks' link to an earlier era of Boston punk: he'd been in the Outlets, he was a songwriter as well as a guitarist, and over the long haul, he's been the guy we've missed most from the original lineup.

The Dropkicks hometown throwdown is nothing if not a family affair -- it's a wonder Ken Casey has any tickets left to sell after taking care of relatives and friends. For the Saturday-afternoon affair we sent former Crash and Burn frontman Bill Brown, because for one, he's been taking his daughter Teresa to hang out with DKM for years.

Every show at the Dropkick Murphys homestand is all-ages (not just the afternoon throwdown that took place Sat afternoon). Because that's what punks do. And verily, with the passing of every March 17, as the Dropkicks gets older, their fans seem to get younger.